/ People missing on Toubkal area-anyone know the outcome?

I've just returned from a successful trip to the Toubkal area in Morocco, whilst up there, our guide was talking to a pair about possible interesting routes, I think they eventually decided on doing the SW ridge to Toubkal, but not sure. That was the last time we saw them. (sat night)

On our way back down a day later, we were met by the police on the way up saying that the pair went from the hut at 8am, but had not returned since, over 24hrs later.

In reply to Bee_1: We returned to the Mouflons Refuge on Monday 7th after a good day's ice-climbing, in perfect weather conditions, to hear that two Swedish women had been reported missing. The reports were confused with conflicting details about the pair's objective, equipment and experience. Accounts of the time they'd been on the hill also varied from 10 hours to 2 days.

The guardian of the Neltner Hut had raised the alarm earlier that day and in response, 13 gendarmes had spent hours walking up from Imlil. Unfortunately, they were not equipped to move on snow and ice, so could do little of value when they arrived. Initially the police told us we were not allowed to go up the hill to look for the missing pair. Eventually they agreed to let us go and we set off to look for the climbers in the few remaining hours of daylight.

Within an hour we spotted two women descending in good order (from the opposite side of the valley that we'd been told they were on). They turned out to be two competent Norwegian alpinists, operating well within their ability and experience and they were devastated to hear that their overnight bivvy on the route had caused such consternation.

We walked back down to the hut with them, where they got a bit of a grilling from the disgruntled police but in the end everyone was pleased to see them safe.

Toubcal is a popular trekking area but there doesn't appear to be an established culture of alpinism amongst the local population. The police were incredulous that anyone would intentionally bivvy on the mountain. And despite there being an abundance of ice (often bullet hard), ice-climbing still seems to be largely unchartered territory.

"Toubkal - Guia de ascensiones y escaladas" published in Spanish by Desnivel contains useful route info. Des Clark's "Mountaineering in the Moroccan High Atlas", published by Cicerone is very good and "Moroccan Atlas the Trekking Guide" by Alan Palmer, published by Trailblazer is good for general info on local customs, languages etc. Maps are tricky to get hold of but Stanfords stock "Toubcal & Marrakech" at 1:50,000 with a useful street map of Marrakech on the back.